Monday

An Arkansas State Trooper who stopped to check a car that had pulled off Interstate 530 Friday afternoon arrested the driver on felony drug charges after suspected marijuana was found in the vehicle.

An Arkansas State Trooper who stopped to check a car that had pulled off Interstate 530 Friday afternoon arrested the driver on felony drug charges after suspected marijuana was found in the vehicle.

Jennie Fairley, 49, has “been involved in drugs for over a decade,” Deputy Prosecutor Maxie Kizer said during a court hearing for Fairley on Monday.

State Police Special Agent Houston Talley said in a probable-cause affidavit that Trooper Phillip Fenton stopped to check on Fairley, who allegedly said her check engine light came on and her vehicle shut down. When Fenton asked for Fairley’s driver’s license, she allegedly tried to push something under the driver’s seat that proved to be a bag containing five smaller bags of suspected marijuana.

Kizer said an additional seven bags of suspected marijuana were found in the vehicle after it was searched by troopers.

Houston said in the affidavit that the total weight of the suspected marijuana was 12.9 ounces, with each of the 12 bags weighing just over an ounce.

Jefferson County District Judge Kim Bridgforth set a $25,000 bond for Fairley after ruling that prosecutors had probable cause to charge her with possession of a controlled substance with purpose to deliver.

Fairley said she would hire her own attorney and was told to come back to court June 10.